Lucy Randolph Mason

Background

Lucy Randolph Mason was born on July 26, 1882 in Clarens, Virginia. She was the daughter of the Reverend Landon Randolph Mason, an Episcopalian minister, and of Lucy Ambler. Most of her childhood was spent in Richmond, Virginia.

Career

Influenced by her parents' religious commitment to social service, she considered becoming a missionary but decided that "religion can be put to work right in one's own community. " Thus, even after she became a legal stenographer in 1904, she remained a volunteer worker for social service organizations concerned with labor and social legislation and interracial cooperation. In 1914 Mason was able to combine her professional and volunteer careers by becoming industrial secretary for the Richmond Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA). After the death of her mother in 1918, she left full-time work to care for her ailing father. Nevertheless, she continued her volunteer work, becoming president of the Richmond Equal Suffrage League and, later, of the League of Women Voters. The death of her father in 1923 allowed Mason to resume her professional career, as general secretary of the Richmond YWCA. Rather than confine herself to traditional "Y" activities, she used this post to continue her involvement in social issues, particularly working conditions and race relations.

In 1931, for example, she spent two months traveling in the South, urging better child labor laws and shorter hours for women. On the basis of her trip, she wrote a pamphlet, Standards for Workers in Southern Industry, which was published and widely distributed by the National Consumers League (NCL), an organization founded in 1899 to combat sweatshop conditions. Mason was becoming more widely known. And when, in 1931, the NCL began searching for a new general secretary to replace the gravely ill Florence Kelly, Mason emerged as a possible choice. Some, though, doubted that she had the stature for the job. NCL leader Clara Beyer commented. Dewson's view prevailed, and Mason moved to New York in September 1932 to assume the leadership of the NCL. In this post Mason energetically publicized labor conditions and testified often at National Recovery Administration code hearings. But the 1930's were a difficult period for the NCL; its finances were tight, and the New Deal seemed to be usurping some of its traditional functions. Ultimately, Mason decided it was an "impossible job" and, reinforced by a long-standing desire to return to the South, she left the NCL in 1937 for a post in Atlanta, as southeastern public relations officer for the newly organized CIO. Oddly, it was this return to the South that made Mason an important national figure. For the next fourteen years she served as the uniquely effective CIO "roving ambassador to the South. "

Achievements

• As a young woman, Mason participated in women's suffrage activities and became interested in improving conditions for workers. Mason served as industrial secretary for the Richmond Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) from 1914 to 1918, and as general secretary of the Richmond YWCA from 1923 to 1932. In 1952 she got Social Justice Award from the National Religion and Labor Foundation.

Works

More photos

• book

  • To Win These Rights

Personality

With her impeccable southern credentials and her broad Virginia accent, the small, gray-haired, sweet-faced, bespectacled Mason could move in circles closed to most trade unionists. She traveled with missionary zeal from Charlotte, N. C. , to McColl, S. C. , to Tupelo, Miss. , to Huntsville, Ala. , to Ducktown, Tenn. , preaching to leading citizens, newspaper editors, clergymen, and manufacturers on behalf of the fledgling southern union movement and against violations of the civil rights of textile, clothing, steel, mining, and communications organizers. Tough southern sheriffs who were harassing union organizers could be softened by mention of her Virginia lineage (George Mason, author of the Declaration of Rights, and Chief Justice John Marshall), her Confederate ancestors (including Robert E. Lee), or her Sunday-school teaching. When her mild southern voice failed to persuade them, she filed charges with the Department of Justice or sought presidential intervention through her regular correspondence with Eleanor Roosevelt. Her dedication and religious idealism having altered some of the ingrained traditions of the South of which she was so much a part.

Quotes from others about the person

• "She is all right in her own bailiwick, but as a national figure would make no dent"
  
  "She has personality, devotion to the industrial women, experience, prestige in her state and in the South . .. and is . .. a good speaker. "

Connections

Mason never married.

Father:

Landon Randolph Mason

Was an Episcopalian minister.

Mother:

Lucy Ambler

References

• Miss Lucy of the Cio: The Life and Times of Lucy Randolph Mason, 1882-1959